Conventionally, this kind of pedal, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Gazette No. Sho 60-197,478, is provided with a pedal body rotatably supported to a pedal shaft, a fixing pawl provided at the front of the pedal body for retaining a front engaging portion of a shoe plate fixed to the sole of a cyclist's shoe, a movable pawl disposed at the rear of the pedal body, with the movable pawl being actuated to interfere with the movement of the shoe plate when subjected to a treading force and being rearwardly swingable with respect to the pedal body. A compression spring is provided between the movable pawl and the pedal body for forwardly biasing the movable pawl.
To position the shoe plate and shoe in the pedal body, the shoe plate is retained at its front engaging portion to the fixing pawl and then placed on the foot bearing surface of the pedal body to allow the rear engaging portion of the shoe plate to abut against the upper surface of the movable pawl. In this condition the cyclist treads the shoe toward the pedal body to swing the movable pawl rearwardly with respect to the pedal body against the spring, while the rear engaging portion of the shoe plate enters into the fore end portion of the movable pawl. The movable pawl is restored in position by the spring force, and the rear engaging portion of the shoe plate engages with the movable pawl, thereby holding the shoe plate to the pedal body. Thus, the shoe plate fixed to the sole of the shoe is mounted on the pedal. On the other hand, to dismount the shoe plate and cyclist's shoe from the pedal, the shoe is twisted laterally around the retained position of the shoe plate to the fixing pawl with respect to the pedal body so as to swing the movable pawl rearwardly against the compression spring, thereby disengaging the rear end of the shoe plate from the movable pawl and removing the shoe plate from the pedal body.
Such conventional pedal, however, has the movable pawl pivoted directly to the pedal body and requires the compression spring to deflect to swing the movable pawl rearwardly with respect to the pedal body when the shoe plate is mounted or dismounted to or from the pedal. As a result, in order to prevent the shoe plate from unexpectedly dislodging from the pedal, the spring force must be set quite large. However, this large spring force requires a large treading force to mount the shoe plate on the pedal, with the result that the shoe plate is difficult to mount, thereby greatly restricting the degree of design freedom. Accordingly, in the conventional pedal, the shoe plate, when easy to mount, becomes difficult to remove, or conversely, when easy to remove, becomes difficult to mount.